DAILY WAR NEWS FOR FRIDAY, APRIL 14, 2006
Photo: Ratings based on governance, security and economic situations
Stable: Fully-functioning government; strong economic development; local security forces maintain rule of law
Moderate: Government functions, but with some concerns; economy developing slowly, with unemployment problems; security under control but with potential for instability
Serious: Government not fully formed; economy stagnant; unemployment high; routine anti-Iraq forces activity, assassinations and extremism
Critical: Government not functioning or only single strong leader; no infrastructure for economy to develop; high levels of anti-Iraq forces activity, assassinations and extremism
Assessment made in January 2006. Sectarian violence in Iraq has surged since February.
Bring ‘em on: US soldier killed in Baghdad by roadside bomb.
Bring ‘em on: US military announced that Rafid Ibrahim Fattah was killed by US forces on March 27 near Baquba. They claim he was a major al Qaeda figure in Iraq.
Bring ‘em on: Marine died due to enemy action near Baghdad.
Bring ‘em on: Iraqi Army Commander in Kirkuk Air Vice Marshal Anwar Amin said the presence of the Multi-National Force in Iraq for three to five years is necessary to insure the stability of Iraq. The military official, in charge of guarding oil facilities in Kirkuk, told reporters that the departure of these forces can cause a disaster, noting that the MNF helped eliminate a number of racial conflicts inside the Iraqi Army, combined of Kurds, Arabs, and Turkmen.
Bring ‘em on: Iraqi security forces arrested today a suspected terrorist for killing at least 40 people in Diyala governorate, a source of the Iraqi National Security Ministry told KUNA. The source said that the suspect, Sattar Jabbar, was disguised as a First Lieutenant in the Iraqi police. Also, Investigations on last week's bombing in Najaf revealed information about the person behind the explosion, which killed 12 people and injured another 42. According to sources, security forces in Najaf confirmed that Faeq Al-Ghazali is the first suspect in the Najaf bombing and he is also accused of the assassination of Moahmmad Baqer Al-Hakim in an operation that killed more than 90 people in 2003.
Bring ‘em on: US military claims it killed one insurgent and wounded another on Wednesday in Hawija. The U.S. military said it had killed a former officer in the Iraqi Air Force under Saddam Hussein's rule, and detained three suspects on Thursday night after they fired on U.S. troops during a raid.
UPDATE: At least 15 killed and 18 injured by car bomb that exploded in a market in Baghdad on Thursday.
Security Incident: Brother of top Sunni politician killed in drive-by attack.
Security Incidents: Two civilians shot dead in Hawija and two more civilians died in explosions there. In Mahmudiyah, a bomb exploded next to a convoy of police commandos, killing one and wounding another. Five bodies found around Baghdad, showing signs of torture.
Security Incidents: Gunmen stormed the house of a Sunni family in Basra and killed seven people. An Iraqi Navy officer and his friend were killed by drive-by shooters in downtown Basra. Mahmoud al-Hashimi, whose brother head Iraq’s largest Sunni Arab political party, as listed above, was slain in Baghdad. This report says a companion with him was slain also. US military report that there were four suicide bombers at the attack on the mosque in Baghdad last week that killed at least 85 worshippers. An engineer and a translator working with British troops in Basra were kidnapped and found dead. Another engineer is still missing. The son of the Mosul police officer, who was shot and killed yesterday, joined his father in death. He also was shot in the incident. Four other people killed in random shootings in the Baghdad area.
Security Incidents: 17 Iraqi officers from Najaf were killed in police convoy ambush. The assault was on a convoy of 50 to 60 new police cars that had been just picked up in Taji. US forces had told them to use a detour because they had discovered a bomb on the road. All the police cars were destroyed, and journalists were barred from going into the Najaf hospital to see the wounded. (See update below) A car bomb in a market in the town of Sabea al-Boor killed 15 people. Witnesses say that bystanders prevented a second car bomb from exploding. 18 other people were killed by gunmen or found dead around the country on Friday, and this toll included seven Sunni employees of a construction company in Basra. (This may be the same incident as listed below, or there may be two incidents.)
Security Incident: Car bomb explodes at Mosul police station, injuring seven.
Security Incidents: Remains of an unidentified body found near a river in Bardi, northern Kirkuk city. Iraqi women killed by gunmen near a mosque in Qawriyah area, and she was shot in the head. Several explosive devices were disabled in western and southwestern Kirkuk. Two oil leakage occurred in two pipelines between Kirkuk and Riyadh. Gunman abducted police superintendent west of Kirkuk. A police officer was assassinated by unknown gunmen in Kirkuk.
In Country:
#1:
Kidnappers of two German engineers seized in Iraq 11 weeks ago are seeking a ransom of 12 million dollars, the news magazine Focus reported on Friday.
#2:
Sunni Arab political leaders said Thursday that nearly 90 Sunnis had been reported abducted or killed over the past two days by groups with possible ties to the nation's Interior Ministry forces. The facts remain sketchy and difficult to confirm
UPDATE on Najaf police attack:
#1: (near Baghdad)
A large group of policemen transporting police vehicles near Baghdad were hit by a roadside bomb and authorities were still trying to determine casualties...The sources said they feared at least 30 policemen were either dead or missing
FURTHER UPDATE:
A senior official in the Najaf governor's office said only 35 of the 80 members of the convoy had made it back to the city. The others (45) were either dead or unaccounted for, he said. Most of the vehicles were destroyed.
Baghdad:
#1:
Back in Baghdad, police discovered the body of a handcuffed man, shot in the head, in the southern neighborhood of Dora.
#2:
Late on Thursday, seven truck drivers were wounded when assailants opened fire on their convoy north of Baghdad, medical officials said.
#3:
One person was killed and another wounded when a car they were placing explosives in detonated in eastern al- Ameen neighbourhood, police said.
Baqubah:
#1:
Three nearly simultaneous explosions destroyed the Sharif Ridha shrine in Baquoba, about 30 miles northeast of Baghdad. The attack did not kill or injure anyone but left the Shiite shrine's dome in ruins.
#2:
At least four worshippers were killed and eight wounded on Friday when two bombs exploded at two Sunni mosques in the Iraqi city of Baquba, police said.
Taji:
#1:
Gunmen in cars killed three Iraqi contractors working for a U.S.-Iraqi military base in Taji, 20 km (12 miles) north of Baghdad, police said.
Basra:
#1:
A roadside bomb killed two Iraqis and wounded four British soldiers near the southern Iraqi city of Basra on Friday, a British military spokesman said. The Iraqis were killed as their car was passing by a British patrol targeted by the bomb Four other civilians also wounded.
#2:
Eleven employees of a building company in the southern Iraqi city of Basra have been kidnapped and killed, a police official said on Friday. The official said they were kidnapped on Thursday and then killed.
Kirkuk:
#1:
Three Iraqis, including a police major from the northern oil centre of Kirkuk, were killed in drive-by shootings Friday.
Dujail:
#1:
Police said they found the bodies of four men with multiple gunshot wounds after they were kidnapped by gunmen near Dujail, 90 km (55 miles) north of Baghdad.
Hawija:
#1:
Five policemen were wounded when their patrol was struck by a roadside bomb in Hawija, 70 km (45 miles) southwest of Kirkuk, a joint U.S.-Iraqi military centre said.
REPORTS
Sunnis Accuse Iraqi Forces of 68 Murders Amid Political Deadlock
The Muslim Scholars Association said those killed had been detained from the southern Baghdad Al-Dura neighborhood on April 4, according to a statement dated Tuesday. "The forces of the interior ministry commandos arrested on April 4, 68 Iraqis, including four Christians," the statement said, citing residents of the area as its source. "The bodies of all these citizens were found today tortured and mutilated in a kind of atrocity of state terrorism that is without precedent in human history," it said. Sunni politician Saleh Mutlak, of the National Dialogue Front which holds 11 parliament seats, on Thursday also condemned the action and charged that "government forces had detained these people from Al-Dura." A Christian politician, allied with another Sunni Arab party then announced that another 400 people had been detained from the same neighborhood soon after the bodies were found. "Just a day after the bodies of the 68 people were found dumped, forces belonging to the government raided Dura and detained 400 people," Mina Yussef said. Iraq's interior minister on Wednesday acknowledged the existence of so-called death squads within certain security forces but denied any link with his own ministry.
Sunni Leaders Say 90 Abducted or Slain in Iraq
Sunni Arab political leaders said Thursday that nearly 90 Sunnis had been reported abducted or killed over the past two days by groups with possible ties to the nation's Shiite Muslim-led Interior Ministry forces. In one incident, as many as 25 men just released from detention allegedly were whisked away by gunmen in SUVs. The Sunnis also allege that 20 corpses turned up in Baghdad, all of them people allegedly abducted by security forces on the morning of April 4. The facts remain sketchy and difficult to confirm, and the political groups making the claims have in the past exaggerated figures and accounts. Two ranking members of Iraq's security forces said they knew nothing about the fresh reports of abductions and deaths. But the allegations, broadcast over radio stations and posted on political Web sites, likely will further inflame tensions between Iraq's Sunni minority and Shiite majority. The reports come as each group's political leaders try to depict the other side as carrying out sectarian violence in an attempt to gain leverage in the country's ongoing power struggle.
Iraq
i CBS Cameraman Released After One Year Imprisonment by US Forces
Just consider the case of CBS cameraman Abdul Ameer Younis Hussein. In April 2005, he was shot in the hip by an American sniper while filming the wreckage of a car bomb in Mosul. US troops then detained him, claiming he had tested positive for explosive residue and that images in his camera linked him to the insurgents. He was imprisoned in Abu Ghraib for more than a year without due process. Abdul Ameer was released just last week after an Iraqi criminal court acquitted him of collaborating with insurgents, citing a lack of evidence. No charges were made public until the trial itself. The case is not an isolated one. The Committee to Protect Journalists documented seven cases in 2005 alone in which U.S. forces detained Iraqi journalists for many weeks or months without charge or due process.
Terrorist ‘Chief’ is US Spin
Terror mastermind Abu Mousab al-Zarqawi is a largely fictitious bogeyman invented to help an American propaganda war in Iraq, it was claimed last night. Senior US military and intelligence officers admitted they have "overstated" the importance of the Jordanian-born al-Qaeda chief. Evidence has emerged that spin doctors also bombarded the "home audience" with exaggerated stories about al-Zarqawi, who is rumoured to have personally decapitated British hostage Ken Bigley in 2004. At a meeting at Fort Leavenworth in Kansas Colonel Derek Harvey, a former military intelligence officer, said foreign rebels were "a very small part of the numbers". He said: "Our focus on al-Zarqawi has enlarged his caricature - made him more important than he really is. The long-term threat is not al-Zarqawi or religious extremists, but former regime types and their friends."
Learning to Count: The Dead in Iraq
How many Iraqis have died as the result of the Anglo-American invasion and occupation of their country remains an unresolved question in the anti-war movement. It is a question the pro-war camp avoids. Yet what more important question is there? Mr. Bush has cited a figure which is obviously taken from the popular anti-war web site
Iraq Body Count (IBC), which proudly refers to its work on its home page as "The worldwide update of reported civilian deaths in the Iraq war and occupation." This project estimates a minimum and maximum death count, which as of April 12 had the minimum number of Iraqi dead at 34,030 and the maximum at 38,164. We shall provide a brief description of their biased and flawed methodology after looking at the true level of casualties in Iraq. We begin with a more accurate number provided by the British medical journal The Lancet on October 29, 2004. The published results of their survey "Mortality before and after the 2003 invasion of Iraq: cluster sample survey" stated, "Making conservative assumptions, we think about 100,000 excess deaths, or more have happened since the 2003 invasion of Iraq. Violence accounted for most of the excess deaths and air strikes from coalition forces accounted for most violent deaths." The report also added that "Most individuals reportedly killed by coalition forces were women and children," and that "Eighty-four percent of the deaths were reported to be caused by the actions of Coalition forces." The report, whose findings have been strongly criticized, not surprisingly, by pro-war camps as well as, surprisingly, by researchers at Iraq Body Count, has been backed by established, credible sources. Not long after the Lancet released their findings, on November 19, 2004, the Financial Times wrote: "This survey technique has been criticized as flawed, but the sampling method has been used by the same team in Darfur in Sudan and in the eastern Congo and produced credible results. An official at the World Health Organization said the Iraqi study 'is very much in the league that the other studies are in.'"
The lead author of the Lancet report, Les Roberts, reported more recently on February 8, 2006, that there may be as many as 300,000 Iraqi civilian deaths. One of the world's top epidemiologists who lectures at Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, Roberts has also worked for the World Health Organization and the International Rescue Committee. Further underscoring these results from the Lancet report were comments made by Bradley Woodruff, a medical epidemiologist at the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, who was quoted in the Chronicle of Higher Education on January 27, 2005: "Les has used, and consistently uses, the best possible methodology." The article continues, "Indeed, the United Nations and the State Department have cited mortality numbers compiled by Mr. Roberts on previous conflicts as fact - and have acted on those results. (He) has studied mortality caused by war since 1992, having done surveys in locations including Bosnia, Congo, and Rwanda. His three surveys in Congo for the International Rescue Committee, a nongovernmental humanitarian organization, in which he used methods akin to those of his Iraq study, received a great deal of attention. 'Tony Blair and Colin Powell have quoted those results time and time again without any question as to the precision or validity,' he says."
Juan Cole Translates Article on Muqtada al-Sadr
Muqtada al-Sadr has called for greater unity with the Sunni Arabs so as to form a political front "on nationalist foundations." He also called on his followers not to join in the struggle of "foreign parties (including Iran") that are trying to settle their conflicts with the United States in Iraq." Muqtada al-Sadr signalled that he differs from Iranian policy in Iraq. His communique said that his followers should "decline to join in any Western plots designed to steal our security and unity, whether the prime minister is Jaafari or someone else." He added, "Do not join with foreign parties that desire to settle their accounts with America. Be responsible." Responding to charges that his Mahdi Army is cooperating with Iranian intelligence to make trouble, Al-Sadr declared, "Creating problems for this reason is forbidden, rather it is religiously prohibited (haram)." He said anyone who did not obey him on this issue is a "rebel."
US Offer Babylon Damage Apology
A senior US marine officer says he is willing to apologise for the damage caused by his troops to the ancient Iraqi site of Babylon. US forces built a helicopter pad on the ancient ruins and filled their sandbags with archaeological material in the months following the 2003 invasion. Colonel Coleman was chief of staff at Babylon when it was occupied by the First Marine Expeditionary Force. The 2,000 troops who were deployed there did immense damage as they set up camp amidst the ruins of old temples. A helicopter pad was constructed at the site. The vibration from landings led the roof of one building to collapse. The soldiers also filled their sandbags with archaeological artefacts, just because they were lying around and easy to pick up. The head of the Iraqi State Board for Heritage and Antiquities, Donny George, is angry and says the mess will take decades to sort out. Col Coleman argues that whatever his troops did, the alternative would have been far worse. If they hadn't moved in, Babylon would have been left at the mercy of looters, he says.
Military to Protect US Aid Teams in Iraq
U.S. military forces will provide security for new reconstruction teams being set up in Iraq's provinces to coordinate U.S. aid, the State Department announced yesterday. The announcement followed months of disagreement between the Pentagon and the State Department over whether to use U.S. troops or private security guards to ensure the safety of dozens of diplomats, aid workers and other civilian specialists who would staff the new outposts. State has argued that the teams warrant U.S. military protection, but the Pentagon, eager to reduce the number of U.S. troops in Iraq, had resisted committing to the new mission. One senior State Department official involved in the interagency dispute said a general understanding was reached after Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice pressed concerns about relying on private guards, and after it became clear that State could get the funding and the personnel for the teams and was moving ahead with them. Plans to establish the groups, known as provincial reconstruction teams, or PRTs, were announced last fall and billed as an important initiative for rebuilding Iraq. A similar program has been tried in Afghanistan with some success. In Iraq, the idea is to staff the teams with political, economic, legal and civil-military relations specialists who can help not only distribute aid but also advise regional Iraqi officials, thereby fortifying provincial governments that had little authority under Saddam Hussein. But since three pilot groups were set up quickly -- in Mosul, Kirkuk and Hilla -- in November, the Pentagon and the State Department have haggled over a number of security, staffing and funding issues.
Japan Court Nixes Suit Over Troops in Iraq
A Japanese court on Friday rejected a lawsuit filed by about 3,200 citizens caliming that Japan’s troop dispatch to Iraq was unconstitutional. Japan's government has sent about 550 troops to southern Iraq since early 2004 to purify water, repair schools and help in other humanitarian tasks — the country's largest overseas military operation since the end of World War II. Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi's government says the mission is strictly humanitarian, and that the deployment is needed to help stabilize the Middle East country. The plaintiffs had claimed that the deployment violated Japan's pacifist constitution, which prohibits the use of force to settle international disputes. They also said the Iraq war was a war of invasion that violates international law, and resulted in the deaths of many civilians, Kyodo News agency said, adding the plaintiffs had demanded some $270,000 in emotional damages. Nagoya district Court spokeswoman Yumiko Kobayashi confirmed that the court had dismissed the suit.
Deceit By the Truckload
It is the greatest international scam in Australia's history. David Marr and Marian Wilkinson reveal the inside story on the wheat board kickbacks. BETWEEN them, a pitiless dictator and UN sanctions had reduced Iraq to ruin. The currency was destroyed. Millions were starving. Hospitals had no medicines, no bandages and no anaesthetics. Faced with a death toll of half a million children since sanctions began, the US secretary of state, Madeleine Albright, remarked: "We think the price is worth it."
But the world grew so restive at the sight of this man-made catastrophe unfolding in Iraq that a compromise was forced on the US. The oil-for-food program was designed to feed Iraq while starving Saddam Hussein of hard currency until he gave up his weapons of mass destruction. Within hours of the resolution passing the UN Security Council, the salesmen of the Australian Wheat Board were back on the road to Baghdad. These were crazy, dangerous journeys that ended in brief meetings, long lunches and huge wheat deals. As American bombs and missiles rained down on Baghdad in December 1998, the board clinched deals to sell more than 2 million tonnes of grain.
COMMENTARY
Not So Fast Colin Powell
This week I read an article by Rorbert Sheer, that said Colin Powell now says that he and his department's top experts never believed that Iraq posed an imminent nuclear threat, but that Bush followed misleading advice from Dick Cheney and the CIA in making the claim. To that I say, not so fast Mr Powell, the time to come clean has long passed. In fact, the window of truth-telling time for you ended when the first US soldier was killed in Iraq. This admission proves that Colin knew the truth and could have stopped the freight train long before it made it to Iraq.
Whose Side Are We On?
The United States is reaching a breaking point with the Shiites in Iraq. The quiescence to date of this dominant and relatively united sectarian force has been the key factor in the U.S.'s ability to keep the lid on in Iraq so far. That is now changing. The Shiites have never had any particular love for the United States. They are bitter about what they saw as their betrayal by the United States after the first gulf war, when the elder President George W. Bush called for uprisings against Saddam and then stood by while Saddam's forces brutally put the insurrection down, with huge Shiite losses. As for the United States, after the Iranian revolution in 1979 and the crisis of American diplomats held hostage in Tehran, a mantra developed in Washington: "Shiite bad, Sunni good." The Shiites were the anti-American revolutionaries in the region. But after the emergence of Al Qaeda, 9/11, the outbreak of the Sunni insurrection against the U.S. occupation in Iraq and Iraqi Shiite quiescence, Washington's working mantra was reversed: it became "Shiite good, Sunni bad." Today it is hard to tell who the good guys are.
One thing was clear on the eve of the war in Iraq: The Shiites would favor the overthrow of Saddam and a brief U.S. occupation only if Washington promised to deliver power into the hands of the Shiite majority via the ballot box. This has now come to pass. …… Thus for most Shiites the quickest way to gain national legitimacy and acquire nationalist credentials may be to join the call for an end to the U.S. occupation. …… Now that Zalmay Khalilzad, the U.S. ambassador to Iraq, has delivered Bush's jarring message that the current Iraqi prime minister, Ibrahim al-Jaafari, is not acceptable to Washington and should not seek a second term, the Shiite break with Washington may be nearing. …… It may make some sense for the United States to help overcome Sunni fears and grievances by siding with their calls for more Sunni power. But the current Shiite political dominance is quite legal, based on a constitution the United States helped draft. It reflects the absolute demographic majority of Shiites. And for the moment at least, sectarian loyalties are the coinage of daily politics and the primary source of security for each citizen. That leaves scant room for compromise.
However clever Ambassador Khalilzad's efforts at divide-and-rule may be, few of his options are good.
US Allies Are Behind the Death Squads and Ethnic Cleansing
Iraq's American overlords at last seem to have grasped the danger posed by their friends' militias. But it may be too late. Much ink, as well as indignation, is being spent on whether Iraq is on the verge of, in the midst of, or nowhere near civil war. Wherever you stand in this largely semantic debate, the one certainty is that the seedbed for the country's self-destruction is Iraq's plethora of militias. In the apt phrase of Zalmay Khalilzad, the US ambassador in Baghdad, they are the "infrastructure of civil war". ….. Khalilzad's denunciation of the militias was an extraordinary turnaround, given that the focus of US military activity since the fall of Saddam Hussein has been the battle against foreign jihadis and a nationalist Sunni-led insurgency. Suddenly the US faces a greater "enemy within" - militias manned by the Shia community, once seen by the US as allies, and run by government ministers.
US officials now view the militias differently. Phasing them out by integrating their members into the official forces of law and order is seen as risky, unless the leadership changes. In February this year the new Pentagon line was that integration could result in security forces that "may be more loyal to their political support organisation than to the central Iraqi government", according to a new study, Iraq's Evolving Insurgency and the Risk of Civil War by Anthony Cordesman, an Iraq expert at Washington's Centre for Strategic and International Studies. Now the US is trying to ensure that political control over the interior and defence ministries is jointly managed by an all-party security council. …..The crucial question is whether the militias can be rolled back at this late stage. Having allowed them to defy their initial banning orders, as well as Iraq's new constitution, which outlawed them, can the US persuade or force its Iraqi allies to disband them? Confronting the Sunni insurgency means, in crude terms, confronting an enemy. Confronting the biggest militias, Badr and the Kurdish peshmerga, means the US must confront its friends. (And I wonder when people will wake up and realize that using violence to solve problems only leads to more violence and more problems, and in consideration of the fact that humans now have the ability to destroy the entire planet and human race, this is NOT a road we want to continue on. I am amazed that people tell me that pacifism “just won’t work” even without trying it out seriously…… when the alternative clearly seems totally self-destructive. – Susan)
PEACE ACTION: Call your congressperson and both your Senators and tell them to end the war in Iraq and not to attack or bomb Iran. Keep the pressure on. If they have spoken out against the war, call and thank them. Below are some reasons why we have to end this war.
Local Story: Australian resident killed in Iraq.
Local Story: Texas airman killed in Iraq.
Local Story: Orlando soldier killed in Iraq.
Local Story: Director-General condemns the murder of Iraqi journalist Muhsin Khudhair.
Local Story: Detainee dies at Abu Ghraib prison in Iraq.
Local Story: Gunmen kill Shi’ite family of four.
Local Story: Bay State Marine dies in Iraq.
Local Story: Texas mourns loss of soldier killed in Iraq.
Local Story: New England soldiers killed in Iraq.
Local Story: Fallen Marine honored in Pike County. (Pennsylvania)
Local Story: Family man, officer killed serving in Iraq. (Maryland)
Local Story: Soldier with Valley link dies after fall in Iraq. (Arizona)
Local Story: Tucker High School mourns loss after graduate dies in Iraq. (Virginia)
Local Story: Translator working for US forces in Iraq was shot last night in Baghdad.
Local Story: Gunmen kill four in Baghdad home.
Local Story: Texans killed in the Iraq war in 2006.
Local Story: Trafford native killed in Iraq. (Pennsylvania)
Local Story: Iraq helicopter crash victims identified as Fort Hood soldiers. (Texas)
Local Story: Utah native soldier killed in Iraq.
Local Story: Soldier from Elk Grove killed in Iraq. (California)
Local Story: Georgia Marine killed in Iraq.
Local Story: Two Marines from PA killed in Iraq.
Local Story: Fairhaven Marine killed in Iraq.
Local Story: Westmoreland County Marine dies in Iraq.
Local Story: Yelm Marine killed in Iraq. (Washington)
Local Story: Four Lejeune Marines killed in Iraq combat.
Local Story: Four Camp Pendleton Marines killed in Iraq.
Local Story: Marine from Atlanta killed in combat.
Local Story: L.A. Marine killed in Iraq when truck rolls over in flash flood.
Local Story: Two Pennsylvania Marines killed in Iraq.
Local Story: Nashville Marine killed in Iraq when truck rolls over.
Local Story: Marine from Milwaukee missing in Iraq.
Local Story: Father of Utah soldier killed in Iraq says son had no regrets.
Local Story: Local soldier killed in Iraq. (Alaska)
Local Story: Maine soldier killed in Iraq.
Local Story: Clermont County Marine dies in Iraq. (Ohio)
Local Story: Camp Pendleton honors nine Marines killed in Iraq.
Local Story: Iowa National Guardsman killed in Iraq.
Local Story: Funeral held for police officer killed in Iraq. (Maryland)
Local Story: Two Baghdad civilians killed by a bomb at the door of their home.
Local Story: Two Iraq families killed in Basra and Baghdad.
Local Story: Swedes killed in Baghdad bombs.
Local Story: Victoria Marine’s body returned home. (Texas)
Local Story: Plant City man dies in Iraq. (Florida)
Local Story: Local soldier dies in Iraq. (Ohio)
Local Story: Glasgow soldier dies in Iraq. (Kentucky)
Local Story: Schofield based soldier killed in Iraq. (Alaska)
Local Story: Texas Marine dies in Iraq.
Local Story: Family buries fallen Marine. (Tennessee)
Local Story: Georgia soldier killed in Iraq.
Local Story: Missouri soldier dies in Iraq.
Local Story: Three more Americans have died in Iraq.
Local Story: Utah soldier laid to rest, Utah flags lowered to half-staff.
Local Story: Fort Wainwright soldier killed in Iraq.
Local Story: Explosion kills NH soldier in Iraq.
Local Story: Marine, 20, laid to rest. (Massachusetts)
Local Story: Three 101stAirborne soldiers killed in Iraq. (Fort Campbell, KY)
Local Story: Soldier from NC killed in Iraq.
Local Story: Asheville soldier killed in Iraq. (North Carolina)
Local Story: Modesto-area Marine killed in Iraq. (California)
Local Story: Lansing soldier killed in Iraq. (Indiana)
Local Story: Three Fort Hood soldiers killed, another seriously injured in Iraq.
Local Story: Local Marine killed in Iraq. (California)
Local Story: Family mourns Landing Marine killed in Iraq. (Michigan)
Local Story: Four soldiers with ties to Alaska have been killed in the last week in Iraq.
QUOTE OF THE DAY: “I took an oath when I joined the Navy. I swore to uphold and defend the Constitution of the United States of America from all enemies, foreign and domestic. Nowhere does it state that I must blindly follow the orders of unjust or immoral leaders. This is the reason that I am compelled to speak out against our use of Depleted Uranium. It is the biggest, invisible danger that our troops and the Iraqi people face and most insidious. What we are committing is a silent genocide of both planet and people.” - Kim Hawkins - Gulf War Veteran
# posted by Dancewater : 4/14/2006 08:58:00 AM
DAILY WAR NEWS FOR FRIDAY, APRIL 14, 2006
Photo: Ratings based on governance, security and economic situations
Stable: Fully-functioning government; strong economic development; local security forces maintain rule of law
Moderate: Government functions, but with some concerns; economy developing slowly, with unemployment problems; security under control but with potential for instability
Serious: Government not fully formed; economy stagnant; unemployment high; routine anti-Iraq forces activity, assassinations and extremism
Critical: Government not functioning or only single strong leader; no infrastructure for economy to develop; high levels of anti-Iraq forces activity, assassinations and extremism
Assessment made in January 2006. Sectarian violence in Iraq has surged since February.
Bring ‘em on: US soldier killed in Baghdad by roadside bomb.
Bring ‘em on: US military announced that Rafid Ibrahim Fattah was killed by US forces on March 27 near Baquba. They claim he was a major al Qaeda figure in Iraq.
Bring ‘em on: Marine died due to enemy action near Baghdad.
Bring ‘em on: Iraqi Army Commander in Kirkuk Air Vice Marshal Anwar Amin said the presence of the Multi-National Force in Iraq for three to five years is necessary to insure the stability of Iraq. The military official, in charge of guarding oil facilities in Kirkuk, told reporters that the departure of these forces can cause a disaster, noting that the MNF helped eliminate a number of racial conflicts inside the Iraqi Army, combined of Kurds, Arabs, and Turkmen.
Bring ‘em on: Iraqi security forces arrested today a suspected terrorist for killing at least 40 people in Diyala governorate, a source of the Iraqi National Security Ministry told KUNA. The source said that the suspect, Sattar Jabbar, was disguised as a First Lieutenant in the Iraqi police. Also, Investigations on last week's bombing in Najaf revealed information about the person behind the explosion, which killed 12 people and injured another 42. According to sources, security forces in Najaf confirmed that Faeq Al-Ghazali is the first suspect in the Najaf bombing and he is also accused of the assassination of Moahmmad Baqer Al-Hakim in an operation that killed more than 90 people in 2003.
Bring ‘em on: US military claims it killed one insurgent and wounded another on Wednesday in Hawija. The U.S. military said it had killed a former officer in the Iraqi Air Force under Saddam Hussein's rule, and detained three suspects on Thursday night after they fired on U.S. troops during a raid.
UPDATE: At least 15 killed and 18 injured by car bomb that exploded in a market in Baghdad on Thursday.
Security Incident: Brother of top Sunni politician killed in drive-by attack.
Security Incidents: Two civilians shot dead in Hawija and two more civilians died in explosions there. In Mahmudiyah, a bomb exploded next to a convoy of police commandos, killing one and wounding another. Five bodies found around Baghdad, showing signs of torture.
Security Incidents: Gunmen stormed the house of a Sunni family in Basra and killed seven people. An Iraqi Navy officer and his friend were killed by drive-by shooters in downtown Basra. Mahmoud al-Hashimi, whose brother head Iraq’s largest Sunni Arab political party, as listed above, was slain in Baghdad. This report says a companion with him was slain also. US military report that there were four suicide bombers at the attack on the mosque in Baghdad last week that killed at least 85 worshippers. An engineer and a translator working with British troops in Basra were kidnapped and found dead. Another engineer is still missing. The son of the Mosul police officer, who was shot and killed yesterday, joined his father in death. He also was shot in the incident. Four other people killed in random shootings in the Baghdad area.
Security Incidents: 17 Iraqi officers from Najaf were killed in police convoy ambush. The assault was on a convoy of 50 to 60 new police cars that had been just picked up in Taji. US forces had told them to use a detour because they had discovered a bomb on the road. All the police cars were destroyed, and journalists were barred from going into the Najaf hospital to see the wounded. (See update below) A car bomb in a market in the town of Sabea al-Boor killed 15 people. Witnesses say that bystanders prevented a second car bomb from exploding. 18 other people were killed by gunmen or found dead around the country on Friday, and this toll included seven Sunni employees of a construction company in Basra. (This may be the same incident as listed below, or there may be two incidents.)
Security Incident: Car bomb explodes at Mosul police station, injuring seven.
Security Incidents: Remains of an unidentified body found near a river in Bardi, northern Kirkuk city. Iraqi women killed by gunmen near a mosque in Qawriyah area, and she was shot in the head. Several explosive devices were disabled in western and southwestern Kirkuk. Two oil leakage occurred in two pipelines between Kirkuk and Riyadh. Gunman abducted police superintendent west of Kirkuk. A police officer was assassinated by unknown gunmen in Kirkuk.
In Country:
#1:
Kidnappers of two German engineers seized in Iraq 11 weeks ago are seeking a ransom of 12 million dollars, the news magazine Focus reported on Friday.
#2: Sunni Arab political leaders said Thursday that nearly 90 Sunnis had been reported abducted or killed over the past two days by groups with possible ties to the nation's Interior Ministry forces. The facts remain sketchy and difficult to confirm
UPDATE on Najaf police attack:
#1: (near Baghdad) A large group of policemen transporting police vehicles near Baghdad were hit by a roadside bomb and authorities were still trying to determine casualties...The sources said they feared at least 30 policemen were either dead or missing
FURTHER UPDATE:
A senior official in the Najaf governor's office said only 35 of the 80 members of the convoy had made it back to the city. The others (45) were either dead or unaccounted for, he said. Most of the vehicles were destroyed.
Baghdad:
#1: Back in Baghdad, police discovered the body of a handcuffed man, shot in the head, in the southern neighborhood of Dora.
#2: Late on Thursday, seven truck drivers were wounded when assailants opened fire on their convoy north of Baghdad, medical officials said.
#3: One person was killed and another wounded when a car they were placing explosives in detonated in eastern al- Ameen neighbourhood, police said.
Baqubah:
#1: Three nearly simultaneous explosions destroyed the Sharif Ridha shrine in Baquoba, about 30 miles northeast of Baghdad. The attack did not kill or injure anyone but left the Shiite shrine's dome in ruins.
#2: At least four worshippers were killed and eight wounded on Friday when two bombs exploded at two Sunni mosques in the Iraqi city of Baquba, police said.
Taji:
#1: Gunmen in cars killed three Iraqi contractors working for a U.S.-Iraqi military base in Taji, 20 km (12 miles) north of Baghdad, police said.
Basra:
#1:A roadside bomb killed two Iraqis and wounded four British soldiers near the southern Iraqi city of Basra on Friday, a British military spokesman said. The Iraqis were killed as their car was passing by a British patrol targeted by the bomb Four other civilians also wounded.
#2: Eleven employees of a building company in the southern Iraqi city of Basra have been kidnapped and killed, a police official said on Friday. The official said they were kidnapped on Thursday and then killed.
Kirkuk:
#1: Three Iraqis, including a police major from the northern oil centre of Kirkuk, were killed in drive-by shootings Friday.
Dujail:
#1: Police said they found the bodies of four men with multiple gunshot wounds after they were kidnapped by gunmen near Dujail, 90 km (55 miles) north of Baghdad.
Hawija:
#1: Five policemen were wounded when their patrol was struck by a roadside bomb in Hawija, 70 km (45 miles) southwest of Kirkuk, a joint U.S.-Iraqi military centre said.
REPORTS
Sunnis Accuse Iraqi Forces of 68 Murders Amid Political Deadlock
The Muslim Scholars Association said those killed had been detained from the southern Baghdad Al-Dura neighborhood on April 4, according to a statement dated Tuesday. "The forces of the interior ministry commandos arrested on April 4, 68 Iraqis, including four Christians," the statement said, citing residents of the area as its source. "The bodies of all these citizens were found today tortured and mutilated in a kind of atrocity of state terrorism that is without precedent in human history," it said. Sunni politician Saleh Mutlak, of the National Dialogue Front which holds 11 parliament seats, on Thursday also condemned the action and charged that "government forces had detained these people from Al-Dura." A Christian politician, allied with another Sunni Arab party then announced that another 400 people had been detained from the same neighborhood soon after the bodies were found. "Just a day after the bodies of the 68 people were found dumped, forces belonging to the government raided Dura and detained 400 people," Mina Yussef said. Iraq's interior minister on Wednesday acknowledged the existence of so-called death squads within certain security forces but denied any link with his own ministry.
Sunni Leaders Say 90 Abducted or Slain in Iraq
Sunni Arab political leaders said Thursday that nearly 90 Sunnis had been reported abducted or killed over the past two days by groups with possible ties to the nation's Shiite Muslim-led Interior Ministry forces. In one incident, as many as 25 men just released from detention allegedly were whisked away by gunmen in SUVs. The Sunnis also allege that 20 corpses turned up in Baghdad, all of them people allegedly abducted by security forces on the morning of April 4. The facts remain sketchy and difficult to confirm, and the political groups making the claims have in the past exaggerated figures and accounts. Two ranking members of Iraq's security forces said they knew nothing about the fresh reports of abductions and deaths. But the allegations, broadcast over radio stations and posted on political Web sites, likely will further inflame tensions between Iraq's Sunni minority and Shiite majority. The reports come as each group's political leaders try to depict the other side as carrying out sectarian violence in an attempt to gain leverage in the country's ongoing power struggle.
Iraqi CBS Cameraman Released After One Year Imprisonment by US Forces
Just consider the case of CBS cameraman Abdul Ameer Younis Hussein. In April 2005, he was shot in the hip by an American sniper while filming the wreckage of a car bomb in Mosul. US troops then detained him, claiming he had tested positive for explosive residue and that images in his camera linked him to the insurgents. He was imprisoned in Abu Ghraib for more than a year without due process. Abdul Ameer was released just last week after an Iraqi criminal court acquitted him of collaborating with insurgents, citing a lack of evidence. No charges were made public until the trial itself. The case is not an isolated one. The Committee to Protect Journalists documented seven cases in 2005 alone in which U.S. forces detained Iraqi journalists for many weeks or months without charge or due process.
Terrorist ‘Chief’ is US Spin
Terror mastermind Abu Mousab al-Zarqawi is a largely fictitious bogeyman invented to help an American propaganda war in Iraq, it was claimed last night. Senior US military and intelligence officers admitted they have "overstated" the importance of the Jordanian-born al-Qaeda chief. Evidence has emerged that spin doctors also bombarded the "home audience" with exaggerated stories about al-Zarqawi, who is rumoured to have personally decapitated British hostage Ken Bigley in 2004. At a meeting at Fort Leavenworth in Kansas Colonel Derek Harvey, a former military intelligence officer, said foreign rebels were "a very small part of the numbers". He said: "Our focus on al-Zarqawi has enlarged his caricature - made him more important than he really is. The long-term threat is not al-Zarqawi or religious extremists, but former regime types and their friends."
Learning to Count: The Dead in Iraq
How many Iraqis have died as the result of the Anglo-American invasion and occupation of their country remains an unresolved question in the anti-war movement. It is a question the pro-war camp avoids. Yet what more important question is there? Mr. Bush has cited a figure which is obviously taken from the popular anti-war web site Iraq Body Count (IBC), which proudly refers to its work on its home page as "The worldwide update of reported civilian deaths in the Iraq war and occupation." This project estimates a minimum and maximum death count, which as of April 12 had the minimum number of Iraqi dead at 34,030 and the maximum at 38,164. We shall provide a brief description of their biased and flawed methodology after looking at the true level of casualties in Iraq. We begin with a more accurate number provided by the British medical journal The Lancet on October 29, 2004. The published results of their survey "Mortality before and after the 2003 invasion of Iraq: cluster sample survey" stated, "Making conservative assumptions, we think about 100,000 excess deaths, or more have happened since the 2003 invasion of Iraq. Violence accounted for most of the excess deaths and air strikes from coalition forces accounted for most violent deaths." The report also added that "Most individuals reportedly killed by coalition forces were women and children," and that "Eighty-four percent of the deaths were reported to be caused by the actions of Coalition forces." The report, whose findings have been strongly criticized, not surprisingly, by pro-war camps as well as, surprisingly, by researchers at Iraq Body Count, has been backed by established, credible sources. Not long after the Lancet released their findings, on November 19, 2004, the Financial Times wrote: "This survey technique has been criticized as flawed, but the sampling method has been used by the same team in Darfur in Sudan and in the eastern Congo and produced credible results. An official at the World Health Organization said the Iraqi study 'is very much in the league that the other studies are in.'"
The lead author of the Lancet report, Les Roberts, reported more recently on February 8, 2006, that there may be as many as 300,000 Iraqi civilian deaths. One of the world's top epidemiologists who lectures at Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, Roberts has also worked for the World Health Organization and the International Rescue Committee. Further underscoring these results from the Lancet report were comments made by Bradley Woodruff, a medical epidemiologist at the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, who was quoted in the Chronicle of Higher Education on January 27, 2005: "Les has used, and consistently uses, the best possible methodology." The article continues, "Indeed, the United Nations and the State Department have cited mortality numbers compiled by Mr. Roberts on previous conflicts as fact - and have acted on those results. (He) has studied mortality caused by war since 1992, having done surveys in locations including Bosnia, Congo, and Rwanda. His three surveys in Congo for the International Rescue Committee, a nongovernmental humanitarian organization, in which he used methods akin to those of his Iraq study, received a great deal of attention. 'Tony Blair and Colin Powell have quoted those results time and time again without any question as to the precision or validity,' he says."
Juan Cole Translates Article on Muqtada al-Sadr
Muqtada al-Sadr has called for greater unity with the Sunni Arabs so as to form a political front "on nationalist foundations." He also called on his followers not to join in the struggle of "foreign parties (including Iran") that are trying to settle their conflicts with the United States in Iraq." Muqtada al-Sadr signalled that he differs from Iranian policy in Iraq. His communique said that his followers should "decline to join in any Western plots designed to steal our security and unity, whether the prime minister is Jaafari or someone else." He added, "Do not join with foreign parties that desire to settle their accounts with America. Be responsible." Responding to charges that his Mahdi Army is cooperating with Iranian intelligence to make trouble, Al-Sadr declared, "Creating problems for this reason is forbidden, rather it is religiously prohibited (haram)." He said anyone who did not obey him on this issue is a "rebel."
US Offer Babylon Damage Apology
A senior US marine officer says he is willing to apologise for the damage caused by his troops to the ancient Iraqi site of Babylon. US forces built a helicopter pad on the ancient ruins and filled their sandbags with archaeological material in the months following the 2003 invasion. Colonel Coleman was chief of staff at Babylon when it was occupied by the First Marine Expeditionary Force. The 2,000 troops who were deployed there did immense damage as they set up camp amidst the ruins of old temples. A helicopter pad was constructed at the site. The vibration from landings led the roof of one building to collapse. The soldiers also filled their sandbags with archaeological artefacts, just because they were lying around and easy to pick up. The head of the Iraqi State Board for Heritage and Antiquities, Donny George, is angry and says the mess will take decades to sort out. Col Coleman argues that whatever his troops did, the alternative would have been far worse. If they hadn't moved in, Babylon would have been left at the mercy of looters, he says.
Military to Protect US Aid Teams in Iraq
U.S. military forces will provide security for new reconstruction teams being set up in Iraq's provinces to coordinate U.S. aid, the State Department announced yesterday. The announcement followed months of disagreement between the Pentagon and the State Department over whether to use U.S. troops or private security guards to ensure the safety of dozens of diplomats, aid workers and other civilian specialists who would staff the new outposts. State has argued that the teams warrant U.S. military protection, but the Pentagon, eager to reduce the number of U.S. troops in Iraq, had resisted committing to the new mission. One senior State Department official involved in the interagency dispute said a general understanding was reached after Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice pressed concerns about relying on private guards, and after it became clear that State could get the funding and the personnel for the teams and was moving ahead with them. Plans to establish the groups, known as provincial reconstruction teams, or PRTs, were announced last fall and billed as an important initiative for rebuilding Iraq. A similar program has been tried in Afghanistan with some success. In Iraq, the idea is to staff the teams with political, economic, legal and civil-military relations specialists who can help not only distribute aid but also advise regional Iraqi officials, thereby fortifying provincial governments that had little authority under Saddam Hussein. But since three pilot groups were set up quickly -- in Mosul, Kirkuk and Hilla -- in November, the Pentagon and the State Department have haggled over a number of security, staffing and funding issues.
Japan Court Nixes Suit Over Troops in Iraq
A Japanese court on Friday rejected a lawsuit filed by about 3,200 citizens caliming that Japan’s troop dispatch to Iraq was unconstitutional. Japan's government has sent about 550 troops to southern Iraq since early 2004 to purify water, repair schools and help in other humanitarian tasks — the country's largest overseas military operation since the end of World War II. Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi's government says the mission is strictly humanitarian, and that the deployment is needed to help stabilize the Middle East country. The plaintiffs had claimed that the deployment violated Japan's pacifist constitution, which prohibits the use of force to settle international disputes. They also said the Iraq war was a war of invasion that violates international law, and resulted in the deaths of many civilians, Kyodo News agency said, adding the plaintiffs had demanded some $270,000 in emotional damages. Nagoya district Court spokeswoman Yumiko Kobayashi confirmed that the court had dismissed the suit.
Deceit By the Truckload
It is the greatest international scam in Australia's history. David Marr and Marian Wilkinson reveal the inside story on the wheat board kickbacks. BETWEEN them, a pitiless dictator and UN sanctions had reduced Iraq to ruin. The currency was destroyed. Millions were starving. Hospitals had no medicines, no bandages and no anaesthetics. Faced with a death toll of half a million children since sanctions began, the US secretary of state, Madeleine Albright, remarked: "We think the price is worth it."
But the world grew so restive at the sight of this man-made catastrophe unfolding in Iraq that a compromise was forced on the US. The oil-for-food program was designed to feed Iraq while starving Saddam Hussein of hard currency until he gave up his weapons of mass destruction. Within hours of the resolution passing the UN Security Council, the salesmen of the Australian Wheat Board were back on the road to Baghdad. These were crazy, dangerous journeys that ended in brief meetings, long lunches and huge wheat deals. As American bombs and missiles rained down on Baghdad in December 1998, the board clinched deals to sell more than 2 million tonnes of grain.
COMMENTARY
Not So Fast Colin Powell
This week I read an article by Rorbert Sheer, that said Colin Powell now says that he and his department's top experts never believed that Iraq posed an imminent nuclear threat, but that Bush followed misleading advice from Dick Cheney and the CIA in making the claim. To that I say, not so fast Mr Powell, the time to come clean has long passed. In fact, the window of truth-telling time for you ended when the first US soldier was killed in Iraq. This admission proves that Colin knew the truth and could have stopped the freight train long before it made it to Iraq.
Whose Side Are We On?
The United States is reaching a breaking point with the Shiites in Iraq. The quiescence to date of this dominant and relatively united sectarian force has been the key factor in the U.S.'s ability to keep the lid on in Iraq so far. That is now changing. The Shiites have never had any particular love for the United States. They are bitter about what they saw as their betrayal by the United States after the first gulf war, when the elder President George W. Bush called for uprisings against Saddam and then stood by while Saddam's forces brutally put the insurrection down, with huge Shiite losses. As for the United States, after the Iranian revolution in 1979 and the crisis of American diplomats held hostage in Tehran, a mantra developed in Washington: "Shiite bad, Sunni good." The Shiites were the anti-American revolutionaries in the region. But after the emergence of Al Qaeda, 9/11, the outbreak of the Sunni insurrection against the U.S. occupation in Iraq and Iraqi Shiite quiescence, Washington's working mantra was reversed: it became "Shiite good, Sunni bad." Today it is hard to tell who the good guys are.
One thing was clear on the eve of the war in Iraq: The Shiites would favor the overthrow of Saddam and a brief U.S. occupation only if Washington promised to deliver power into the hands of the Shiite majority via the ballot box. This has now come to pass. …… Thus for most Shiites the quickest way to gain national legitimacy and acquire nationalist credentials may be to join the call for an end to the U.S. occupation. …… Now that Zalmay Khalilzad, the U.S. ambassador to Iraq, has delivered Bush's jarring message that the current Iraqi prime minister, Ibrahim al-Jaafari, is not acceptable to Washington and should not seek a second term, the Shiite break with Washington may be nearing. …… It may make some sense for the United States to help overcome Sunni fears and grievances by siding with their calls for more Sunni power. But the current Shiite political dominance is quite legal, based on a constitution the United States helped draft. It reflects the absolute demographic majority of Shiites. And for the moment at least, sectarian loyalties are the coinage of daily politics and the primary source of security for each citizen. That leaves scant room for compromise.
However clever Ambassador Khalilzad's efforts at divide-and-rule may be, few of his options are good.
US Allies Are Behind the Death Squads and Ethnic Cleansing
Iraq's American overlords at last seem to have grasped the danger posed by their friends' militias. But it may be too late. Much ink, as well as indignation, is being spent on whether Iraq is on the verge of, in the midst of, or nowhere near civil war. Wherever you stand in this largely semantic debate, the one certainty is that the seedbed for the country's self-destruction is Iraq's plethora of militias. In the apt phrase of Zalmay Khalilzad, the US ambassador in Baghdad, they are the "infrastructure of civil war". ….. Khalilzad's denunciation of the militias was an extraordinary turnaround, given that the focus of US military activity since the fall of Saddam Hussein has been the battle against foreign jihadis and a nationalist Sunni-led insurgency. Suddenly the US faces a greater "enemy within" - militias manned by the Shia community, once seen by the US as allies, and run by government ministers.
US officials now view the militias differently. Phasing them out by integrating their members into the official forces of law and order is seen as risky, unless the leadership changes. In February this year the new Pentagon line was that integration could result in security forces that "may be more loyal to their political support organisation than to the central Iraqi government", according to a new study, Iraq's Evolving Insurgency and the Risk of Civil War by Anthony Cordesman, an Iraq expert at Washington's Centre for Strategic and International Studies. Now the US is trying to ensure that political control over the interior and defence ministries is jointly managed by an all-party security council. …..The crucial question is whether the militias can be rolled back at this late stage. Having allowed them to defy their initial banning orders, as well as Iraq's new constitution, which outlawed them, can the US persuade or force its Iraqi allies to disband them? Confronting the Sunni insurgency means, in crude terms, confronting an enemy. Confronting the biggest militias, Badr and the Kurdish peshmerga, means the US must confront its friends. (And I wonder when people will wake up and realize that using violence to solve problems only leads to more violence and more problems, and in consideration of the fact that humans now have the ability to destroy the entire planet and human race, this is NOT a road we want to continue on. I am amazed that people tell me that pacifism “just won’t work” even without trying it out seriously…… when the alternative clearly seems totally self-destructive. – Susan)
PEACE ACTION: Call your congressperson and both your Senators and tell them to end the war in Iraq and not to attack or bomb Iran. Keep the pressure on. If they have spoken out against the war, call and thank them. Below are some reasons why we have to end this war.
Local Story: Australian resident killed in Iraq.
Local Story: Texas airman killed in Iraq.
Local Story: Orlando soldier killed in Iraq.
Local Story: Director-General condemns the murder of Iraqi journalist Muhsin Khudhair.
Local Story: Detainee dies at Abu Ghraib prison in Iraq.
Local Story: Gunmen kill Shi’ite family of four.
Local Story: Bay State Marine dies in Iraq.
Local Story: Texas mourns loss of soldier killed in Iraq.
Local Story: New England soldiers killed in Iraq.
Local Story: Fallen Marine honored in Pike County. (Pennsylvania)
Local Story: Family man, officer killed serving in Iraq. (Maryland)
Local Story: Soldier with Valley link dies after fall in Iraq. (Arizona)
Local Story: Tucker High School mourns loss after graduate dies in Iraq. (Virginia)
Local Story: Translator working for US forces in Iraq was shot last night in Baghdad.
Local Story: Gunmen kill four in Baghdad home.
Local Story: Texans killed in the Iraq war in 2006.
Local Story: Trafford native killed in Iraq. (Pennsylvania)
Local Story: Iraq helicopter crash victims identified as Fort Hood soldiers. (Texas)
Local Story: Utah native soldier killed in Iraq.
Local Story: Soldier from Elk Grove killed in Iraq. (California)
Local Story: Georgia Marine killed in Iraq.
Local Story: Two Marines from PA killed in Iraq.
Local Story: Fairhaven Marine killed in Iraq.
Local Story: Westmoreland County Marine dies in Iraq.
Local Story: Yelm Marine killed in Iraq. (Washington)
Local Story: Four Lejeune Marines killed in Iraq combat.
Local Story: Four Camp Pendleton Marines killed in Iraq.
Local Story: Marine from Atlanta killed in combat.
Local Story: L.A. Marine killed in Iraq when truck rolls over in flash flood.
Local Story: Two Pennsylvania Marines killed in Iraq.
Local Story: Nashville Marine killed in Iraq when truck rolls over.
Local Story: Marine from Milwaukee missing in Iraq.
Local Story: Father of Utah soldier killed in Iraq says son had no regrets.
Local Story: Local soldier killed in Iraq. (Alaska)
Local Story: Maine soldier killed in Iraq.
Local Story: Clermont County Marine dies in Iraq. (Ohio)
Local Story: Camp Pendleton honors nine Marines killed in Iraq.
Local Story: Iowa National Guardsman killed in Iraq.
Local Story: Funeral held for police officer killed in Iraq. (Maryland)
Local Story: Two Baghdad civilians killed by a bomb at the door of their home.
Local Story: Two Iraq families killed in Basra and Baghdad.
Local Story: Swedes killed in Baghdad bombs.
Local Story: Victoria Marine’s body returned home. (Texas)
Local Story: Plant City man dies in Iraq. (Florida)
Local Story: Local soldier dies in Iraq. (Ohio)
Local Story: Glasgow soldier dies in Iraq. (Kentucky)
Local Story: Schofield based soldier killed in Iraq. (Alaska)
Local Story: Texas Marine dies in Iraq.
Local Story: Family buries fallen Marine. (Tennessee)
Local Story: Georgia soldier killed in Iraq.
Local Story: Missouri soldier dies in Iraq.
Local Story: Three more Americans have died in Iraq.
Local Story: Utah soldier laid to rest, Utah flags lowered to half-staff.
Local Story: Fort Wainwright soldier killed in Iraq.
Local Story: Explosion kills NH soldier in Iraq.
Local Story: Marine, 20, laid to rest. (Massachusetts)
Local Story: Three 101stAirborne soldiers killed in Iraq. (Fort Campbell, KY)
Local Story: Soldier from NC killed in Iraq.
Local Story: Asheville soldier killed in Iraq. (North Carolina)
Local Story: Modesto-area Marine killed in Iraq. (California)
Local Story: Lansing soldier killed in Iraq. (Indiana)
Local Story: Three Fort Hood soldiers killed, another seriously injured in Iraq.
Local Story: Local Marine killed in Iraq. (California)
Local Story: Family mourns Landing Marine killed in Iraq. (Michigan)
Local Story: Four soldiers with ties to Alaska have been killed in the last week in Iraq.
QUOTE OF THE DAY: “I took an oath when I joined the Navy. I swore to uphold and defend the Constitution of the United States of America from all enemies, foreign and domestic. Nowhere does it state that I must blindly follow the orders of unjust or immoral leaders. This is the reason that I am compelled to speak out against our use of Depleted Uranium. It is the biggest, invisible danger that our troops and the Iraqi people face and most insidious. What we are committing is a silent genocide of both planet and people.” - Kim Hawkins - Gulf War Veteran
